2021/03/04 by Emerson Gonçalves Dias, Elvira F. da Costa, Elvira Florentino Costa +2
Environmental Science · Psychology · Agricultural and Biological Sciences · #Amphibian and Reptile Biology #Animal and Plant Science Education #Animal Behavior and Reproduction
paper · doi:10.1080/00222933.2021.1909164
Parental care is a behavioural repertoire exhibited by parents to their offspring to ensure their survival. In anurans, parental care may be optional, maternal, paternal, alloparental or biparental, towards eggs, larvae and/or juveniles. Frostius pernambucensis is a bufonid species exclusively endemic to the Brazilian Atlantic Rainforests of northeastern Brazil, occurring in the states of Paraiba, Pernambuco, Alagoas and Bahia. This study describes the behavioural parental care repertoire displayed by F. pernambucensis at the Dois Irmãos State Park (Parque Estadual Dois Irmãos – PEDI), the species type locality, in the municipality of Recife, Pernambuco. Fieldwork was carried out between June 2015 and March 2017, in which parental care was observed for three F. pernambucensis males. In total, 45 behavioural acts were recorded (n = 526), distributed in six subcategories: agonistic behaviour (n = 228; 43.35%), vigilance (n = 92; 17.49%), offspring manipulation (n = 78; 14.82%), dislocation (n = 68; 12.93%), vocalisation (n = 51; 9.70%), and maintenance behaviours (n = 9; 1.71%). Descriptive parental care records for Brazilian amphibians are considered rare, emphasising the importance of the present study, which provides relevant information about this poorly known taxon.